“The times I’ve felt the most hopeful about my future as a 20-something transmasculine person is when I’ve had the privilege of interacting with older butches. My first distinct encounter with a butch person happened when I was 15 years old at the Ventura County Fair; they were helping their high femme girlfriend get onto the Ferris wheel, looking dapper in their Oakland Raiders jersey and long, tightly-woven braid.
Though the interaction was fleeting and basically parasocial, moments like this always felt like Easter eggs from older, wiser queers — a sign to tell me you can live a masc life. I’m not alone in my admiration; butches have been a backbone of modern queer spaces since before the term was even coined in the early 20th century. From Stormé DeLarverie throwing the first punch at the Stonewall Uprisings to Leslie Feinberg penning groundbreaking novels about queer and trans experience like Stone Butch Blues and Drag King Dreams to Jeanne Córdova helping found the West Coast queer liberation movement, butches have helped shape the modern fight for queer and trans liberation.
Butchness is wide-ranging…”
[Read the full article at them.us]